Cooler than Google Glass: Military Spy Glasses

Just when you think you would get sick of hearing about wearable tech, something new comes up. Say hello to the X6, courtesy of Osterhout Design Group. They're meant to make intelligence gathering and sending an easier task.

The X6 was revealed at a symposium in Washington recently at the Defence Intelligence Agency headquarters. You can apparently use the glasses to look at a regular map and then have 3D-structures pop up in your line of vision to mark possible objects of interest. Said map was just a satellite photograph print, in case you were wondering.

How did the glasses do that? What happens is the image is captured by the glasses then processed by a server which compares the images to determine the locations seen on the map. You get more detail and depth than what you would get from Google Glass but without necessarily resigning yourself to ultra-bulky glasses.

Q approved, perhaps?

The key thing here is that the X6 would provide more immersion than Google Glass can manage with its tiny screen but not quite taking over your sight the way a virtual reality headset would. Microsoft has signed a deal with X6's makers concerning intellectual property so who knows, we might see some interesting applications of the eyewear coming to a Microsoft-enabled game or some other application.

There are also startups already working making software for the X6, including the company Imagus that helps you recognise someone's face. No more embarassing "oops I forgot your name" moments!. All this made possible with facial recognition tech.

Ever been to a gathering where you saw someone’s face but you couldn’t remember her name or why she was important? It’s not just a cocktail party problem but a national security one. A year old startup form Australia called Imagus, has developed a program for the X6 that fixes the problem.

Imagus can apparently match a face in real time at a resolution of twelve pixels between the eyes. Anything under sixty is considered great in the facial recognition field.At present time, other companies are also looking into what else they can develop for the platform.

Right now the US Defence Department has purchased 500 beta units of the glasses and the government is getting first dibs on the eyewear. Sorry, consumers, you won't be seeing these spy specs in your store anytime soon.